Arsenal Close In On Monchi After Roma Exit

Spaniard Sacked

Arsenal have moved a step closer to appointing Monchi as their director of football after the Spaniard left Serie A side Roma.

Monchi left the Italian club on Thursday – the same day that Eusebio di Francesco was sacked as coach and former Leicester, Fulham and Chelsea boss Claudio Ranieri appointed in his place.

The 50-year-old Monchi spent 21 months at Roma joining the club in 2017. He was previously at Sevilla where he struck up a fruitful working relationship with Unai Emery, then the Spanish side’s coach. Monchi spent 17 years at Sevilla as director of football where he built up the club’s academy as well as being in charge of new signings.

During his time at the club he oversaw €300million worth of player sales at a profit of €200million. The likes of Sergio Ramos, Juan Antonio Reyes and Dani Alves all began their careers at Sevilla before being sold on to bigger clubs.

Monchi’s reign at Roma has been mixed at best but he and di Francesco are being made to carry the can for what is being seen as a disappointing season. Roma have always been a selling club but after spending over €115million last summer on the likes of Steven Nzonzi, Patrick Schick, Justin Kluivert and Javier Pastore the side have slid out of the Champions League places in Serie A. They were beaten 3-1 by Porto to go out of this season’s competition 4-3 on aggregate.

Arsenal are keen for Monchi and Emery to rekindle their relationship at the Emirates. The Gunners are ready to appoint a director of football for the first time. Monchi and former Arsenal player Marc Overmars – currently in a similar role at Ajax – are current favourites for the post.